Touch Compass Dance Company, based in New Zealand, has released the latest short film in their DanceBox series in time for International Dance Day, this Friday 29 April. Flipped: My Body Stopped To Let Me Remember, the newest collaboration in the company’s poignant and boundary-pushing series, is a five-minute glimpse into dancer Renee Ball’s inspiring journey from paralysis to performer. Six years ago Renee Ball’s life was flipped on its head. Midway through a Bachelor of Dance Studies, the 19-year-old contracted Guillain-Barré Syndrome and within a few days she was paralysed. Initially only able to communicate through blinks and clicks, five years of rehabilitation has seen most of … [Read more...] about Lovely short film about recovery and rehab following Guillain-Barré
There are no new treatments in physiotherapy
A few days ago, I responded to a Tweet from Glyn Blakey (@saebouglyn) and Mary Banks (@MaryBanksy) after Mary had posted up a paper suggesting that the Saebo Mobile Arm Support (SaeboMAS) had reduced tonic muscle activity across all muscles, and that this had had a positive influence on corticomotor selectivity of biceps brachii during a counterbalanced movement tasks. This all sounds very fancy, but what it basically means is that if you support the arm, the patient who is having difficulty moving, can concentrate on one joint activity while the rest of the limb is supported. You'll get a better idea if you see a picture of the SaeboMAS at work: Seeing the paper made me wonder … [Read more...] about There are no new treatments in physiotherapy
Fit for physiotherapy (Spanish)?
CPN Exec member Alma Viviana Silva frequently translates blogposts into Spanish for us. Here she has translated the recent post Fit for physiotherapy? (link to original) Huge thanks go to Viviana for this. Over time, we hope to be able to offer blogposts in many other languages to reach beyond the limits of the anglophone world, so if you would like to help out translating the odd post into Norwegian, Mandarin, Urdu or another language, please get in touch. p.s. you can find 12 different translations of the CPN's Constitution here . Es esto apto para la fisioterapia? Tal vez uno de los mayores desafíos que enfrenta la profesión de fisioterapia en el futuro no será si se … [Read more...] about Fit for physiotherapy (Spanish)?
Fit for Physiotherapy?
Perhaps one of the greatest challenges facing the physiotherapy profession in the future will not be whether it can secure the necessary economic and political support to remain at the forefront of physical medicine, but whether it wants to take what's on offer. Throughout its history, physiotherapy has benefited from world events that have consolidated the profession's relationship with the State, the public, and the medical profession (think here of the growth in the profession's size and status as a result of World War I, the polio epidemics, the birth of the welfare state, etc.). But these have all nurtured our image as a caring profession in service of the entire population. Health … [Read more...] about Fit for Physiotherapy?
WCPT advocates for the inclusion of people with disabilities in physiotherapy profession
Last week, the WCPT unveiled its latest briefing paper titled Access to physical therapist entry level education and practice for persons with disabilities. This paper and supporting resources are significant, not only for their critical and radical statements on the relationship between physiotherapists and people with disabilities, but also because they situate one of the profession's leading advocacy organisations in the position of critiquing physiotherapy's longstanding atheism towards disability rights. Physiotherapists have long paid lip-service to the idea that they advocate for the rights of disabled people, but have systematically excluded disabled people from training (with … [Read more...] about WCPT advocates for the inclusion of people with disabilities in physiotherapy profession
Wither ‘Quality of Life’?
This post from our CPN Exec member Barbara Gibson just appeared on The AMS Phoenix Project site (link) and is cross-posted here. I recently attended my first AMS Phoenix Project Conference as a new grant recipient. It was a treat to be amongst a talented group of people who are collectively dedicated to infusing compassionate care into healthcare, and who are doing so from diverse perspectives. As someone who identifies as a critical researcher I was especially intrigued by some of the comments provided by speaker Arno Kumagai related to the problem of evaluating compassion. Dr Kumagai mentioned a somewhat disturbing trend in healthcare towards measuring compassionate care utilizing … [Read more...] about Wither ‘Quality of Life’?
Por qué el dolor , por qué ahora?
Por qué el dolor , por qué ahora? He estado desconcertado durante algún tiempo con por qué es que el dolor crónico parece estar tanto en el enfoque de los fisioterapeutas en este momento. Durante muchos años, el dolor crónico residía junto con la depresión, la enfermedad reumatoide y la parálisis cerebral como uno de los muchos desordenes y síndromes llamados “cenicienta” que los fisioterapeutas en el sistema público soportaron (aunque con poco remedio para ellos), y aquellos que están en el sistema privado consintieron, cada vez que alguien podía permitirse el lujo de pagar por el tratamiento que era largo y, a lo mejor ligeramente efectivo. Luego, hace unos años, la gente como David … [Read more...] about Por qué el dolor , por qué ahora?